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Confessions of a failed eclipse photographer

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I’ve dreamed of seeing a total eclipse of the sun all my life. When I read there was one on August 21st that passed dead-center over the town of Newberry SC, I was overjoyed. This was my chance. My wife and I had lived in Newberry in 2013. I had friends there. I had a place to stay. I wouldn’t need to pay $1000 for a hotel room.

I had friends who owned Enoree River Vineyards and Winery (a slight plug for a great vineyard and great wine.) They were throwing a party for 300 people at their winery. My friend even had an official pair of Newberry Eclipse 2017 glasses saved for me. I bought a 4×4 ND5 SolarLite polymer filter sheet from Thousand Oaks Optical, the good stuff, and made a filter holder to that I could quickly remove it from the front of my 300mm lens, 450mm on my crop frame D7100, when totality climaxed. I read everything I could find about shooting the eclipse and studied a myriad of images. I wanted to have a great picture to hang on my wall to remind me of the experience and, I admit, to brag about. I was pretty well set.

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How I made a timelapse of total solar eclipse while still being able to celebrate with my family

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I’m happy to say the VIEW Intervalometer performed very well for the eclipse, allowing me to enjoy the experience with my family while it managed the pre-planned exposures and motion tracking on the telephoto.

I traveled with my wife and three boys (ages 5, 3 and 1) to Emigrant, MT (since everywhere else was too expensive).  We logged a total of 2945 miles over the 6-day trip, which was probably too much, but we made lots of stops and had a fun adventure.

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These are NASA’s mind-blowing photos of 2017 solar eclipse

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The solar eclipse is over, but the hype isn’t. As a matter of fact, some of us living far from North America are even more hyped after the eclipse – because now we get to see the photos. And where can you find lots of awesome photos of space? In NASA’s image library, of course. They have published the images of the 2017 solar eclipse right after the event, and as you can expect – they are simply stunning.

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How to melt your camera sensor shooting the eclipse

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You know how a tiny, toy magnifying glass can burn little pieces of paper? Well, the camera lens is a not a small, toy, magnifying glass by no means, it is a powerful well-polished tool of optics and using it in the wrong way – say to photograph the sun during an eclipse – can be devastating to the camera sensor.

The team at Everything Photography did a little experiment and showed what an unfiltered six seconds exposure would do to your sensor. TL;DR – it fries te sensor.

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DIY solar filters for the great American eclipse

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With the Great American Eclipse on Aug 21 only a few weeks away, I decided to put together some solar filters.  With the high travel costs to get to the eclipse from Southern California, I saved some money through purchasing the solar filter sheets instead of the pre-made filters.  To facilitate a fast detachment during totality, compared to a screw on filter, I made some cardboard holders that fit into my Lee filter holder.

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This is the first ever photo of a total solar eclipse

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Total solar eclipse is coming on August 21, and I guess your cameras and protective filters are ready. But before you start filming or photographing this phenomenon, would you like to see the first ever photo of it?

Prussian photographer Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski was the one who took the first correctly exposed daguerreotype of total solar eclipse. It was on July 28, 1851, in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). No one before him managed to do it; it’s not an easy task even today. But Berkowski made a breakthrough 166 years ago.

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How to capture this year’s total solar eclipse over the USA on video in a single take

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Total eclipses aren’t actually as rare as many people think, happening somewhere on earth about every 18 months or so. But to have them appear over a particular part of the planet, or even a specific country, isn’t quite as often. But, there’s is a total solar eclipse happening over the USA in a couple of months. Monday, August 21st, to be precise. For many Americans, this will be a once in a lifetime event.

Destin Sandlin from YouTube’s SmarterEveryDay has, naturally, had this event at the forefront of his mind recently. So, he went to interview some people about it to find out more from a science perspective. But Destin also had a chat with eclipse fanatic and creator of the Solar Eclipse Timer app, Dr Gordon Telepun, MD, to find out how best to capture the event on video.

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ESA Captures Total Solar Eclipse from Space

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The total solar eclipse I’ve been telling you about (here and here) ended just minutes ago.

For those who were unable to see it due to clouds, your location or lack of proper gear, no need to worry; I’m sure your Facebook feed will be full of peoples’ photos of the relatively rare occurrence.

Many of these photos are bound to seem virtually identical, but the European Space Agency has captured a series of photos that will no doubt stick out from the rest. That’s because the ESA’s footage was captured from space using its Proba-2 minisatellite.

Other than the photo above, the ESA also released a short time lapse of the event.

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